Fanfics, icon bases, and some non-tangible stuff

[doranwen.livejournal.com]

This has been a pretty good year for me overall, with some ups and downs. I lost a lot of stuff in a hard drive crash (waa!), I'm engaged (yay!), I'm sick of school (boo!), and I'm almost graduated with a degree in elementary education (woohoo!), ready to get out there and start teaching.

1. I'd love something from my teacher-related Amazon wish list. It's books I can use to help me teach students better (particularly with regards to differentiation and such). If you spot one at Goodwill or a used book store, great! I LOVE used books. As long as the material is intact, I really don't care about the book's condition.

2. Prayer. If you're a Christian, please pray for me this coming year. I'm going to be student teaching, and will need all the divine help I can get.

3. Donate to ADRA. It's an agency that's often on the front lines when a disaster occurs; they provide the emergency water, rations, etc. to keep people alive and safe, and they're also involved in setting up microdevelopment projects where people can donate towards supporting families, promoting health, providing food and water, establishing livelihoods, and responding to emergencies.

4. Adopt a pet, especially from a no-kill shelter if you can find one (every pet you adopt there gives more room for them to save another, and helps support them). If you've already done so, tell me your story; how did you find your pet?

5. I would love it if someone would write me a Pretender fanfic; a Jarod/Miss Parker pairing and/or a fic that develops the surrogate father relationship between Sydney and Miss Parker. Preferably "and".

6. I would also really love it if someone would write me a Scott/Ororo fanfic for X-Men movieverse. Either set it up as post-X2, or post-X1 where Jean betrays Scott with Logan. (X3 does not exist here.)

7. I've been looking for the movie "Where Are My Children?" (starring Marg Helgenberger) for ages. It was made for TV, not released anywhere as far as I know. If anyone has this on VHS somewhere and could convert it to digital, or has a digitized version of it, I would be ever so grateful!

8. I lost all my bases (some 18,000+ I had saved, mostly from obsessiveicons) for making icons in a hard drive crash last January. I would love it if someone could get together a nice collection of bases sorted by artist name, and within that by subject material of the base (emphasis on nature, some people and other things too). I don't have the time to put together the enormous collection I used to have, and haven't been able to create icons lately due to that. I would credit you for helping me out, and be very grateful! This is something that anyone with a lot of time and a decent Internet connection can do; no money or even any creative bent is really necessary. Even if all you have is a single collection of nice bases somewhere, feel free to share them; I will be most appreciative! :)

9. I know I won't get it this year, but I'd love a real desktop computer. I've only ever had a laptop, and I work my computer to death. It really can't handle the sort of things I ask of it; a good desktop could (and moreover is designed to; I have to treat my laptop like a desktop, unfortunately, and I wish I could simply treat it like the laptop it really is).

10. Volunteer, for this Christmas and beyond. Find something that will benefit other people (particularly a charity that works with children or animals, if either's up your alley), and find a way to help. Then tell me about your experience. What did you do? How did it go? I'd love to hear how people are making a difference (happy news is always welcome!).

Comments

[majandra913.livejournal.com]

4- A few years ago, my beloved cat passed away unexpectedly. My other cat was just as devastated as I was, so I decided to start looking for another cat, even if it hurt a lot to do so. I always get my animals from shelters, so I decided to check petfinder.com

One of the first animals to show up on the list was a cute kittenish female calico cat. Her name was just as unique as my cats' tend to be- I took it as an good sign. This place was a foster home set up- no killing. They even took cats destined for the humane society or euthanasia. I thought that idea was great, and could tell right away that she was the one for me- there was no need to wait for the weeks it takes to de-traumatize a cat after being caged.

I took her home, and fell in love. She has turned out to be an incredible cat. I've been sharing the name of the place to everyone I know looking for animals.

[doranwen.livejournal.com]

Awesome! I'm glad things worked out so well for you. :)

I love the foster home setup--I think it's great for eliminating the cage trauma. I was able to volunteer a few times at a no-kill shelter that did that with as many of their cats as possible, and that was really neat.

Thanks for sharing! :D

[empressjad.livejournal.com]

I can help you out with #4...boy, can I help you with that one! My friend and I run a no-kill independent animal (primarily cats/kittens, although we've had pygmy goats, a crow, raccoons, opossums, horses, skunks, etc.) shelter. All of them are free-roaming...no cages. Currently, we have 26 lovely animals waiting patiently for a forever home. We started out fostering a litter of six kittens, and it kept growing from there. They're like family to us until we find them their own homes, then we cry and miss each and every one of them...but we know they'll be much happier with all the spoiling they'll get. Wanna see a few of our beasties? Some have since been adopted, and some are still with us...and some with most likely be permanent residents. The redhead in some of the pix is my partner whose husband built the physical shelter and did the interior for us.
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v616/empressjad/BEASTIES/Fosters/?start=all

[doranwen.livejournal.com]

Aww, they're so cute! :) Makes me wish I could adopt one right now. :D

[empressjad.livejournal.com]

I wish you could adopt one, too. There are lots of rescue-related posts on my LJ, so if you want to friend me, feel free.

[doranwen.livejournal.com]

I'd love to, but I'm just about to start student teaching. I doubt I'll have time for it. :( I'm trying not to join anything or add anything further to my already-cluttered life. :/ Thanks for the offer, though! I always love hearing stories about rescued kitties. :D